Rock Creek Park - 10/7

Lou Shomette (lshomett@maa.org)
Wed, 07 Oct 98 10:10:43 EST 

     Things were pretty quiet at Rock Creek Park this morning with one 
     exception:
     
     For those of you who have been coming to Rock Creek Park this Fall, 
     you'll remember the large group of crows at the horse training area 
     around picnic areas 25 and 26.  This morning, I found a Red-tailed 
     Hawk in the middle of the horse training area enjoying a fresh kill of 
     crow.  As you could imagine, the crows were going nuts - 30 to 50 
     crows were circling directly over the hawk, 200 screaming in the 
     nearby trees, some dive-bombing, some landing within 20 feet.  During 
     the time I watched, the hawk was (it seemed) totally oblivious to the 
     goings on around.  Chalk one for the hawks!
     
     Lou Shomette
     Columbia, MD